Personal musings on Israel, Jewish matters, history and how they all affect each other

Sunday, March 7, 2010

More on Elias Khoury

Last week I wrote about the translation to Arabic of Amos Oz' book A Tale of Love and Darkness. The translation, remember, was commissioned by Elias Khoury, an Israeli Palestinian lawyer, after his son was murdered by Palestinians who thought he was Jewish. Now we read that Khoury's father was likewise murdered, not many years after he managed to climb out from under years of Shin Bet persecution. After all that, he can still say

“This book tells the history of the rebirth of the Jewish people,” he said as he sat in his law office. “We can learn from it how a people like the Jewish people emerged from the tragedy of the Holocaust and were able to reorganize themselves and build their country and become an independent people. If we can’t learn from that, we will not be able to do anything for our independence.”

Awe inspiring. If there were more such people around, on all sides, the world would be a better place.